Inside the Stade de France, Paris, four athletes stood side by side on the high jump mat. Their faces beaming, they held the flags of Ukraine and Australia in their outstretched hands. The roaring crowd had just witnessed an athletic spectacle of speed, power and grace, and were reveling in the joy of the medal winners.
The field of 32 female high jumpers competing in the Paris Olympics had been whittled down to four. With Ukrainian Iryna Gerashchenko and Australian Eleanor Patterson clearing the same mark but unable to go higher, the bronze medal was theirs to share. That left only 22-year old Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the high jump world record holder, and 27-year old Australian Nicola Olyslagers, the Tokyo Olympics’ silver medallist. In a tense jump-off, with the crowd willing both athletes on, it was the Ukrainian who prevailed.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh is from the city of Dnipro in south-eastern Ukraine. Straddling the river after which it is named, it is a place I have visited many times. Located about 200km from the Russian border, Dnipro had a population of around 950,000 prior to the February 24, 2022 invasion. When Putin’s cynically named ‘Special Military Operation’ began, Yaroslava, like millions of her fellow Ukrainians, fled the violence, leaving her country for an uncertain future.
Mahuchikh is not, of course, the only elite athlete from Ukraine that has suffered as a result of Russia’s unjustifiable and unconscionable war. In addition to those who have had their lives uprooted and training disrupted, hundreds of top level Ukrainian athletes have been killed. They have lost their lives serving as frontline soldiers, and in Russian attacks on civilian targets. After her victory in the high jump, Mahuchikh said that her gold medal was for the ‘…almost 500 sportsman (who) died in this war…They will never compete. They will never celebrate. They will never feel this atmosphere…’1 The dead include established national champions, international competitors, at least one world champion, and young athletes who had promising careers ahead of them.
The articulate and humble Mahuchikh was gracious in victory, and the Australian was gracious in defeat. Although Nicola Olyslagers stated her determination to go one better in Los Angeles in four years’ time, she said it was: ‘The perfect podium, like tonight was it, the four of us all there sharing it together.’2
Australia has stood together with Ukraine since Russian tanks rolled over its border in 2022. Although our support is modest when compared with the US and European military powerhouses, the Government has supplied materiel, Australian soldiers are training Ukrainian troops, and we are on the ground as humanitarian volunteers.
I watched the athletes standing together on the high jump mat with tears in my eyes. The event had been contested, and now celebrated, in the true Olympic spirit of Higher, Faster, Stronger, Together. But it was more than that for me, and I expect for many others too.
I hope that soon the day will come when Ukrainians and Australians will be celebrating in victory again, alongside all the other nations that have supported Ukraine since the Russian invasion. Then young Ukrainians will once more be able to chase their Olympic dreams in peace; training for sport and not for war.
1Dampf, A., 2024, ‘High jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh wins Ukraine’s 1st individual gold of the Paris Olympics‘ AP
2The Guardian, 2024, ‘Australia’s Olyslagers and Patterson win silver and bronze in Olympic high jump final‘, The Guardian
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